Last updated: January 7, 2025
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Lugares Históricos (Orlando, Florida)
Lugares Históricos, a program led by the Orlando, Florida-based Puerto Rican Organization for the Performing Arts (PROPA), identifies, celebrates, and demarcates historical sites associated with African-descended peoples in Puerto Rico.
Lugares Históricos documents the presence and contributions of African-descended people in Puerto Rico. The initiative first focused on Bomba, a broad genre of music and dance developed by enslaved Africans in Puerto Rico. Through the project, PROPA identified sites across Puerto Rico associated with Bomba music and dance, like the former home of Domingo Negron of Cataño, Puerto Rico. Negron organized Bomba events in his home defying government efforts to stamp out the practice.
Lugares Históricos has also organized panel discussions at locations where Bomba practitioners lived and socialized, and it conducted a multi-city tour of cultural sites. The program also placed placards at historical Bomba sites facing erasure through demolition, gentrification, or natural disaster and partnered with other organizations to hold remembrance events. Finally, the program coordinates the biennial Bomba Research Conference.
Lugares Históricos became a part of the African American Civil Rights Network in 2024.
The African American Civil Rights Network recognizes the African American Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the sacrifices made by those who fought against discrimination and segregation. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017, and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network tells the stories of the people, places, and events of the U.S. African American Civil Rights Movement through a collection of public and private resources to include properties, facilities, and programs.
Lugares Históricos documents the presence and contributions of African-descended people in Puerto Rico. The initiative first focused on Bomba, a broad genre of music and dance developed by enslaved Africans in Puerto Rico. Through the project, PROPA identified sites across Puerto Rico associated with Bomba music and dance, like the former home of Domingo Negron of Cataño, Puerto Rico. Negron organized Bomba events in his home defying government efforts to stamp out the practice.
Lugares Históricos has also organized panel discussions at locations where Bomba practitioners lived and socialized, and it conducted a multi-city tour of cultural sites. The program also placed placards at historical Bomba sites facing erasure through demolition, gentrification, or natural disaster and partnered with other organizations to hold remembrance events. Finally, the program coordinates the biennial Bomba Research Conference.
Lugares Históricos became a part of the African American Civil Rights Network in 2024.
The African American Civil Rights Network recognizes the African American Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the sacrifices made by those who fought against discrimination and segregation. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017, and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network tells the stories of the people, places, and events of the U.S. African American Civil Rights Movement through a collection of public and private resources to include properties, facilities, and programs.